Modern Transition In The Normative Intention Of "Benevolence" And The Way Of Its Agumentation

Tan Sitong's theory of benevolence made a transition in the intention of benevolence and the way of its argumentation. This transition demonstrates a modern development of Chinese traditional philosophy.Firstly, this paper examines the historical development of the theory of benevolence from the original Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius to the Neo-Confucianism. The theory of Benevolence originated by Confucius reveals the normative intention of benevolence and its requirement of equality in the concept of "love" and "Chung and Shu", and gave a view of self-realization as its argumentation. Mencius inherited Confucius' issue and raised the concept of "Human Nature" and "Heaven" as the basis of self-realization. But Mencius''Heaven" didn't have an independent content. He just considered "good heart" as a proof of "Good Nature", and then attributed this to the "Heaven",thus finished a formal argumentation of the normative intention of benevolence. He couldn't provide a universal and inevitable criterion to one's contents of heart, so the intention of benevolence wasn't clear in his texts. A real moral metaphysics of "Benevolence" wasn't established until the theories of "benevolence of creation" and "benevolence of unity". The concept of "creation" and "unity" gave a metaphysical understanding of the "Heaven".Secondly, this paper gives an analysis of Tan Sitong's theory of benevolence and the point of view that Tan Sitong inherited the understanding of "benevolence of unity" and its argumentation. But Tan Sitong also made some important changes. He based the world's unity on the western concept "ether" in place of the Chinese traditional concept of "Qi", which demonstrated his efforts to established a new scientific world outlook for the Chinese. He added "equality" and "autonomy" to the intention of benevolence, thus renovated the intention of benevolence. He wanted to arrange a new order of values for the Chinese in the late 19th century.Behind the transition Tan Sitong made in the intention of benevolence and its argumentation is the change of thinking model and value orientation. He introduced subject-object dichotomy cultural spirit in the West since modern times into the Chinese traditional harmony between human and nature, which was shown in his thought of "identify contradiction". Through this, Tan Sitong indicated a presumably correct way of developing the traditional philosophy in modern times. This is the deep meaning of the transition Tan Sitong made in the intention of benevolence and the way of its argumentation.